Still need to hear more and see the game before I can pass any sort of real judgment.

For now, I'm kind of cocking my eybrow and making a "meh" face to this.
Unless it's drastically different from other MMORPG's I've played, and more in-tune to the actual Elder Scrolls franchise, I'll probably give it a pass.

This seems like an odd decision; an MMO is a huge gamble, especially for a company that's never made a multiplayer game, much less a massively multiplayer one. It's too early to pass judgement, but I really hope they don't just make a standard World Of Warcraft clone. Also, does anyone more familiar with TES lore have any speculation on what the factions will be?

Apparently it's fully voiced, runs on the Hero Engine, has an extremely high budget, is based off a popular role-playing series, and is stealing mechanics from another MMO. It's SWTOR all over again! Can't wait for the arguing to begin on the Bethesda Forums.

Not to mention that the regions will either be downsized or hilariously empty.

I can't help but imagine it working something like The Lord of the Rings Online, in that it will start off with only a certain region open to play in, but then expand and open up new areas over time as the story progresses and enough players join to reasonably fill out the areas already present.

I don't bother to distinguish, since to the best of my knowledge, Zenimax is owned and controlled by the people who originally ran Bethesda. They created Zenimax to be the corporate structure to contain the development studio Bethesda and other acquisitions. Its not the same thing as, say, Vivendi and Activision-Blizzard, because Zenimax didn't either buy or create Bethesda, Bethesda created Zenimax.

It matters to the degree of who is working on the dev teams. IMO, Zeni Max stopped being just a Bethesda created holding company when they started buying studios and publishing non Bethesda games - they're now occupying the same niche EA and Ubisoft do, if not the infamy yet. All three of them started as single studios.

That said, yes Bethesda is probably helping in places, especially since they're between games now.

-Constellations will be in the game a la Mundus stones (which work like guardian stones) and also give the answer to things like block puzzles where you step on the blocks in a certain order [note: I list this but these things are prone to change in development]

-Radiant AI will not be present

-Fast travel exists in the game in the form of wayshrines, which are also your ressurection point, and you can teleport from one wayshrine to any other wayshrine you have already visited

-There most likely won't be dragons

-Sneaking will be in the game, but how it is implemented is undecided

-They're not talking about pets right now

-There will be no player housing

-There will be no NPC romances or marriage

-"It needs to be comfortable for people who are coming in from a typical massively multiplayer game that has the same control mechanisms, but it also has to appeal to Skyrim players."

-Features most of Tamriel including Skyrim, Morrowind, Summerset Isle, and Elseweyr.

-"Not all provinces are included in their entirety; Zenimax Online is keeping large areas inaccessible to save them for use as expansion content. Nonetheless, every major area is represented to some extent."

-As an example, Windhelm is fully implemented, but Winterhold and the mages' college won't be in at launch.

-There are three player factions:

Ebonheart Pact: The Nords, Dunmer, and Argoninans

Aldmeri Dominion: Altmer, Bosmer, and Khajit

Daggerfall Covenant: Bretons, Redguard, and Orcs

-"Recreating the freedom Elder Scrolls players expect within the World of Warcraft-style mechanics Zenimax Online is using for this MMO would be impossible without changing the way that players interact with the world."

-As such, the game uses a hubless design

-For example, you don't necessarily pick up a quest to do the following, but if you kill all the necromancers in an undead barrow, a shade you free at the end will reward you.

-However, to help you find these events, various NP Cs you talk to will tell you where they are happening and put a marker pointing them on your map, which is obviously totally different than receiving a quest.

-The game uses MMORPG genre standards such as classes, experience points, and other traditional MMORPG progression mechanics, but they try to present it "around the core fantasy presented by traditiona Elder Scrolls games" such as traveling around and righting wrongs or seeking riches

-The game world is very large relative to Skyrim

-You can explore almost anything you can see

-the game is set 1000 years in the past

-The imperials are an enemy to all three factions, lead by the noble Tharn family and the King of Worms, Mannimarco, and are hatching a plot to take over all of Tamriel

-But BEHOLD, Mannicmarco is scheming with Daedric prince Molag Bal to take over the world behind the Tharn's back

-Also, your soul has already been stolen by Molag Bal, which is the reason you can come back from death over and over again, and the starting plot is that you're fighting Molag Bal to get your soul back from him

-Hitting the level cap takes about 120 hours

-Each faction has their own leveling content

-An example quest is the story of Camlorn, where you have to stop evil werewolves who have their eyes set on conquest. First, you have to do a "standard MMO kill and collection quest" to sto ghosts from attacking some mages and soldiers. The ghosts are reliving a battle that the werewolf leader was in. You summon a ghost to find out what's going on, and the ghost tells you to wear her dead husband's armor to re-experience the battle he died in. You then get transported hundreds of years into the past to fight this battle. During this battle, you can choose to save the dead man's wife or to pursue the Werewolf leader. Zeni Max chooses to save the man's wife, who then tells you that the Werewolf leader is weak to fire. This information is helpful when you fight him, but you don't actually need to do this quest before fighting the werewolf leader if you don't want to. Basically, you can skip parts of quest chains if you want, but you get some benefit for playing the whole thing. Also, whenever you go back to the town you just saved, everything there hails you as a hero. [note: Heh, the battle is very similar to a Shivering Isles quest and the "main plot" of the second of The Witcher 2]

-The game features three faction PvP where you fight to take over keeps and use trebuchets and other siege weapons to help do it. At the high end, you can have 100 v 100 battles. There are also farms and mines you can try to take over. Mots of this happens in Cyrodiil where your goal is to take over and hold the Imperial City to get faction wide bonuses for it. If you have played Dark Age of Camelot, this probably sounds familiar. For those who haven't, essentially the entire zone is a giant PvP area will all sorts of points of interest.
-The most accomplished PvP player on your faction becomes emperor whenever you take over the capital

-When you take over Cyrodiil, you will be able to adventure in it as a hostile city a la Kvatch

-The game will have raids and heroic modes for its dungeons as end game content in addition to faction PvP

-Public dungeons are essentially instances that aren't actually instanced, so anyone can be in them, so imagine a World of Warcraft dungeon that featured everyone on the server in the area instead of just your party

-There are standard instanced dungeons as well

-Back on the topic of the skillbar, you have a limited number of skills you can use at any given time, and can change them whenever you're out of combat

-The number of skills is equal to (paraphrase) "a light and heavy attack with your current weapon that take up the first two slots, a few more spells related to your class, and an ultimate in the last slot".

-The ultimate is used once you gain enough finesse, which is earned by doing well in combat

-You also get a bonus loot chest if you're soloing and max your finesse, and you can also build finesse by comboing with other players

-For example, a rogue can put oil on the ground that a mage can set on fire

-A fighter can also spin in the firestorm a mage puts down, which sends out fireballs [note: Huh? how does this work?]

-The Thieves Guild and Dark Brotherhood will be presented, but in what form isn't detailed as their content is hard to recreate in an MMO setting

-NP Cs will try to work together and use player like behavior when fighting you, and (at least to my understanding) have stamina as well

-They want the AI to be good, so instead of enemies in a dungeon sitting around and waiting to be pulled, you will be attacked by the entire room and they will try to react to how you are playing

-You destroy dark anchors to gain reputation with the Fighter's Guild. They are large hooks that fall from the sky pseudorandomly and have Daedric guardians next to them. They are easier to kill with a group, and once destroyed, everyone who participated gets a reputation boost with the Fighter's Guild, and eventually nets you rewards like new skills and abilities. [note: Seems similar to Rift's eponymous rifts]

-The combat model will not be real time due to latency

-The combat is based around a stamina bar which you can use to sprint, block, interrupt, and break incapacitating effects

-Blocking is the primary focus of these abilities, and can do things like stopping the secondary effects of attacks such as an ice spell slowing you

-Stamina also applies to PvP, so stamina management (and wearing down your enemy's stamina) is important, as your crowd control abilities might be on a long cooldown, and if you use them before the enemy player runs out of stamina, they will probably just block the effect

-Zeni Max feels that having the stamina bar will help break down the Holy Trinity [note: the Holy Trinity is Tank, Healer and DPS] as stamina allows you to do things like tank

-However, healing is still a big part of the game

-There is also no aggro mechanic in the game, which is part of the reason stamina blocking and healing exist

Source: Gameinformer article, I took the short version from Neo GAF, shortened it a bit more and the highlights/notes are mine

edited 3rd May '12 6:51:17 PM by Anfauglith

Instead, I have learned a horrible truth of existence...some stories have no meaning.

Why would the Dark Elves need any back up? They have the fucking Tribunal. More importantly, they have Vivec. He could just use CHIM to delete anyone who fought against Morrowind. And why would they team up with Nords and Argonians? They all are racist isolationists. Fuck me, this game is already stupid and it doesn't have the excuse of having Todd Howard working on it.

From what I'm reading, it appears to be an Enemy Mine between the Dunmer, Nords, and Argonians. (Wouldn't be the first time the races of Tamriel forgot their hatreds for a moment to beat the crap out of someone else.) Doesn't really effect me that much since MMOs tend not to be my thing.

edited 3rd May '12 8:39:24 PM by rmctagg09

Hugging a Vanillite will give you frostbite.
"The wheel will turn ever more, but I see pain. I see victory, but pain.

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